Tinsel package



Aug. 9, 1955 P. A. LEE

TINSEL PACKAGE Filed Feb. 25, 1955 e 0 me Mm 5 WL N .aw im Mm u M W fr #20.6 mm A KK? www 0. @nu W6 *Y W .\\.v/l

United States Patent O TlNsEL PACKAGE Paul A. Lee, Warwick, R. I.` Application February zs, 1953, serial No. 338,664

z claims. (ci. 41-1o) This invention relates to a tinsel package, particularly tinsel for decorating a Christmas tree.

A very large portion of Christmas trees are sparsely branched, and oftentimes the unevenness of the branches makes it a diliicult task to decorate trees in a manner to result in a shapely and uniformly trimmed tree.

An object of the invention is to provide tinsel in a form to adapt its use for decorating a Christmas tree in a manner to produce an effect of a uniformly shaped tree.

Another object of the invention is to provide a package of tinsel in a form such that each tinsel streamer or ribbon is arranged to hang in festoons and radiate uniformly from a central point about the Christmas tree.

A more specific object of the invention is to provide a package of tinsel in a form such that tinsel streamers may be arranged to hang in festoons from upper to lower branches of a Christmas tree so as to cover empty spaces formed by an absence of branches between said upper and lower branches.

With these and other objects in view, the invention consists of certain novel features of construction as will be more fully described and particularly pointed out in the appended claims.

In the accompanying drawings:

Figure 1 is a view of a Christmas tree having tinsel thereon embodying my invention;

Figure 2 is a view illustrating a fractured branch suspended from an upper branch by strands of tinsel;

Figure 3 is a perspective view illustrating a spacer and tinsel held thereby;

Figure 4 is a perspective view of the tinsel in the package form; and

Figure 5 is a sectional view through the spacer shown in Figure 3 illustrating the manner in which the strands of tinsel are held thereby.

In accordance with the invention I provide tinsel made of narrow strips or ribbon aluminum foil and arrange to hold these at their mid point in folded relation by a spacer element. Thus, each length of tinsel forms two tinsel streamers held from a common point. The spacer element may take any of various appropriate shapes and be made of any suitable metallic or non-metallic material. Preferably a disk made of a resin plastic material is used and is provided with a central opening through which the tinsel strips may be passed and folded back upon themselves and through which opening the spacer may be passed over the terminal branch or trunk 0f the tree. The periphery of the disk is preferably equally notched to receive and space groups of streamers to be festooned about the tree in accordance with the esthetic senses of the person decorating the Christmas tree. Thus, a group of the streamers may be arranged to hang in festoons from upper to lower branches and fanned out to cover empty spaces between said upper and lower branches which may exist because of a sparsely branched tree.

Referring to the drawings for a more detailed description of the invention, designates a Christmas tree in which tinsel designated 11 is illustrated in a form ernlength for larger trees.

2,714,776 Patented Aug. 9, 1955 ICC bracing my invention. The tinsel 12 comprises stripor ribbon-aluminum foil of appropriate lengths for the particular size of tree to be decorated. In practice and for practical reasons tinsel of one length will be adapted for trees up to a predetermined size or height and another The strips are made of appropriate width, as by way of example about a sixteenth of an inch, and of a thickness to provide suicient tensile strength individually or ina small plurality to suspend a fractured branch at a proper angle or to hold at a more desirable angle and position a branch of a Christmas tree of a size usually adapted for the home.

A spacer element 13 of appropriate shape and dimension and which may be made of any suitable metal or nonmetal material is provided. Preferably, the spacer 13, as illustrated in the drawing, is made of a resin plastic stamping in the form of an eight-point star and has a central opening 14 through which the strips of tinsel are passed and then folded upon themselves at their mid point as at 15 (see Figure 5) and there held to each other as by means of a gummed band or label 1S (see Figure 4). Thus, each strip of tinsel forms two tinsel streamers 16. There may be any number of such streamers. However, I have found that fty strips of 12-foot lengths folded as above will provide suflcient streamers to decorate the average Christmas tree up to six feet in height. The tinsel is packaged on a core 17 which may be of H shape so as to provide arms 18 between which the tinsel may be wrapped about the body 19 of the core. The core in turn may be attached to a suitably shaped support (not shown) and then placed in an envelope (not shown) so as to be offered to the tradel as an attractive p saleable item.

In use the tinsel is unwrapped from the core 17 and shaken to free the streamers from entanglement with each other. The spacer 13 may then be positioned about the terminal portion 20 of the tree trunk to rest and be supported on the upper branches 21. The streamers 18 may now be divided in groups and placed in the spaces between the points 22 (see Figure 3) of the spacer to extend circumferentially about the tree. The person decorating the tree may now take each individual streamer 16 or groups thereof and fan the same in festoon fashion from branch to branch as shown in Figure 1. Should there be an empty space as at 23, sufficient of the streamers 16 may be placed to be draped from the branches above said space to the branches below the space to cover said space 23 with streamers hanging in festoon fashion. Often a usable tree may have a branch fractured as at 24 (see Figure 2), in which case one or two streamers 16 may be wrapped or otherwise secured to an upper branch to extend therefrom to be wrapped about the fractured branch as at 26 to suspend the same at a proper position. Oftentimes it is desirable to bend one of the branches and hold it at a position which will be more equally spaced from adjacent branches. To effect such a rearrangement of branches, a plurality of streamers 16 may be employed to hold said branch at the desired position and which streamers would be far less conspicuous and not materially distract from the tree than if a cord were used for such purpose.

Upon taking down the tree, the tinsel may be readily removed from the tree as a unit in an obvious manner and then rewrapped about the core 16 to be re-used from time to time.

It will now be apparent that I have shown tinsel packaged in a form to be readily attached to the upper portion of the tree and from which point of attachment the tinsel streamers may hang in festoons about the tree, thus shaping the tree in a uniform pyramidal shape.

While I have particularly described a spacer block taking the form of a star, various other configurations may be resorted to as long as the tinsel is suitably held by the spacer. For instance, the spacer may consist of merely a circular disk provided with a central aperture, a circular disk with a central aperture and a plurality of notches around the periphery thereof, or mayI have a plurality nof apertures cut therein so as to suitably hold the tinsel.

I claim: t

1. A package of Christmas tree decorating tinsel comprising a plurality of `strips of tinsel folded upon themselves forming a bight,l an ornamental spacer in said bight having an opening through which said strips of tinsel extend, a Vband encircling said folded tinsel 4at a point removed from the bight to hold the spacer 4in the fold4 of said tinsel and confine the tinsel at a location spaced lo from the fold in compact relation with the free portion of the tinsel strip beyond said band aring therefrom and 4 more widely spaced, and a core about which the free rre vvidely spaced portion of the strips of tinsel are wrapped to provide a compact package.

2. A package of Christmas tree decorating tinsel as set forth in claim 1 in which said spacer is a star shaped disk held in the fold of said tinsel.

References Cited ih the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 250,430 Engi'sch et al Dec. 6, 1881 1,441,266 Clune Jan. 9, 1923 2,117,997 Taylor May 17, 1938 FOREIGN PATENTS 18,486 Great Britain of 1902 

